Social Innovation, the Public Good and the Invention-Innovation

1
Social Innovation, the Public Good and the
Invention-Innovation

• David Castle
• Canada Research Chair in Science and Society
• Department of Philosophy
• University of Ottawa
• dcastle_at_uottawa.ca

2
We All Know What the Problem Is

• 2003 Canadian business expenditures on RD
  represented only 1.0 of GDP
• U.S.s 1.8 or the OECD average of 1.5.
• 2005, the World Economic Forum ranked Canadian
  businesses 27th in the world in terms of their
  propensity to compete based on unique products
  and processes
• 2006, the Expert Panel on Commercialization
  (commissioned by the Prime Ministers Advisory
  Council on Science and Technology) called for a
  Commercialization Partnership Board to address
  the invention-innovation

3
Post-Secondary Education Funding
CAUT - Almanac of Post-Secondary Education 2007
4
We All Know What the Problem Is

• ST Framework states Canada is the top-ranked
  publisher of peer-reviewed scientific papers
  based on publicly-funded research, but adds /
  captures little value
• The Conference Board of Canada reports that
  private sector investment in training, learning
  and development in Canada is stagnant, and is
  slipping behind many of our international
  competitors .
• The Council of Canadian Academies finds that
  fields with high growth potential are not
  associated with correspondingly consistent
  science and technology infrastructure,
  particularly in the regulatory domain that would
  generate confidence in health and safety,
  intellectual property protection, and environment
  and business framework regulation.

5
Vannevar Bush Linear Model
Federal Investment
Social Benefit
6
Innovation Gap
ST Framework Entrepreneurial Knowledge People
Domain of Research
Domain of Application
PPPs Firms VC Change Agents
7
Innovation Gap
ST Framework Entrepreneurial Knowledge People
Domain of Research
Domain of Application
Transfer Translation
PPPs Firms VC Change Agents
8
Biotechnology IP
9
Biotechnology IP
10
Biotechnology IP
11
Biotechnology IP - PDV
12
Biotechnology IP - PDV
13
Biotechnology IP - PDV
14
Biotechnology IP - PDV
15
Biotechnology IP - PDV
16
Central Challenge

• Central to the debate is the question of whether
  managed innovation within a federal system of
  devolved governance create appropriate enabling
  and sustaining social conditions for science and
  technology to flourish in Canada, and improve the
  well-being and wealth of Canadians.

17
Five Challenges

• 1. Systematic review of the governance of
  innovation which provides improved measures of
  the social-scientific impact of public and
  private investment in science and technology
• 2. Study of boundary-crossing science and
  technology where traditional categories of
  science and technology no longer apply, thus
  destabilizing the regulatory environment and
  public understanding of science and technology

18
Five Challenges

• 3. Development of a proactive technology
  assessment that combines ethical and scientific
  elements in the evaluation of a technologys
  complete life-cycle
• 4. Extension of Canadian science and technologys
  into the international context to address the
  imbalance in global health equity and food
  security and reestablish Canadas preeminence in
  the development agenda

19
Five Challenges

• 5. Evaluation of environmental context of science
  and technology innovation to understand the
  impact on the social environment, health systems,
  and the natural environment

20
Convergence in Biotechnology

• Complexity obstacle
• Regulatory culture obstacle
• Reactive mode obstacle
• Myth of sound science obstacle
• Domestic focus obstacle

21
Innovation in Governance
22
Social Innovation NOW!

• New methods for evaluating the social return on
  science and technology investments, and assessing
  technological innovation as it arises in its
  social context
• New metrics that ground new methods and models
  empirically in measures that better capture the
  social impact of innovation
• New models to analyze and evaluate domestic
  science and technology governance, and to
  strengthen Canadas position through
  international comparison

23
Acknowledgements